Everglades to receive $880M water cleanup, five massive water treatment facilities

After years of political bickering and budget shortfalls, the Federal Government gave its approval for an $880 million plan sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the South Florida Water Management District to improve water quality in the Everglades, Bloomberg reported. Despite being a key water source for millions of South Florida residents, decades of fertilizer runoff from farmland have left the Everglade’s dangerously polluted.The project will filter plant-harming phosphorous from the water by creating five storm-water treatment areas covering 57,000 acres.

“It wraps up almost a decade of arguing over what the best thing to do is,” said Julie Hill-Gabriel, Everglades policy director for Audubon Florida. “This, at the very least, is an agreement that these are the right steps to move forward and sets very stringent deadlines.” [AP via Bloomberg]